Vietnam News

Vietnam, EU likely to sign FTA soon

A garment factory (Source: VNA)

Vietnam
and the European Union (EU) are likely to sign the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement
(EVFTA) soon, Daniel Muller, ASEAN Regional Manager for the German Asia-Pacific
Business Association, said in an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency (VNA)
reporters in Germany.

The EVFTA is the bloc’s first
comprehensive free trade deal with a developing country in Asia. Negotiations
began in June 2012 and were completed in December 2015 with contents similar to
those with Japan, Indonesia and Singapore.

The deal needs approval from the
European Council, the European Parliament and all EU member countries.

Muller said the EU and Japan,
Singapore and Vietnam share interests in free trade agreements, especially at a
time when the US is carrying out its trade protectionism policy, withdrew from
the Trans-Pacific Partnership and denied to deal with common crises in
multilateral free trade.

According to him, Vietnam and the EU reached basic
consensus on the deal in 2015, and Vietnam needs to fix management shortcomings
already mentioned by the bloc.-VNA